Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

PROS: Small (~4") Echo device with excellent voice recognition, color touch screen and camera is perfect for small places like bed-side table or kitchen counter. Good sound and image quality for such a small device. Constant software updates allow for almost limitless possibilities for uses now and in the future. In fact, many criticisms of early reviews have already been addressed and corrected. CONS: Hardware: My Spot stopped working after 1 year and 8 months. (See UPDATE 8/18/19 below) Software: Most issues with the Spot are software related and fixable by Amazon in the near future or IMHO, minor. REASONABLE EXPECTATIONS: Keep in mind that although this can play music, display videos, and make phone calls, the Spot is not a high res TV, a large entertainment center, a high fidelity listening device, or a smart phone. Expectations should be based on the fact that the Spot is a 4" device with a 1.4" speaker and a 2.5" screen. UPDATE 8/18/19: My adorable Spot is dead. I found it yesterday mid-morning with a black screen and a warm case. I unplugged it, let it cool off, and tried another outlet. Nada. Dead. There is a 1 year warranty on the Spot. Expectations for this device to survive longer than 1 year and 8 months are not unreasonable. Three rating stars removed for poor longevity. Amazon support was easy to deal with and I was offered a trade in which involved sending my dead Spot back to Amazon (free shipping label) in return for a gift card ($5-$30, depending on condition of device) and a 25% discount on the purchase of a new device. I used the discount to order a new Spot, but it is currently out of stock and won't be shipped until November or December. Hopefully, this new shipment will have some of the bugs worked out. REVIEW UPDATE JULY/9/2018: I still love the Spot. I use it for a bedside "smart" clock radio, and I am extremely happy with it. What does it do? It wakes me up. It plays music. It displays the time. It answers questions, mostly about the current weather conditions. I don't use it to teleconference, watch movies or videos, or call people's cell phones. I have the camera turned off. It's on my bedside table....Yuk! No always on camera, thank you! As suspected, Amazon has added enhancements and fixed glitches with software upgrades. Complaints about the home screen clock face? Now there are a huge amount of customize able choices one can select. You can pick a background pattern, photo, or color, the type of clock hands or digital display, and whether there should be a tiny window for the date. My biggest complaint is with the music it plays. I often have trouble getting Alexa to play the music I want. One has to ask Alexa properly, in the correct order. You have to say, "Alexa, Play songs by Bonnie Raitt." Or "Alexa, Play songs from my Modern Blues Playlist by Bonnie Raitt." Asking "Alexa, Play Bonnie Raitt" might just get a "Sorry! There are no songs called Bonnie Raitt" response. Things can get far trickier when you want to listen to a particular symphony by Beethoven. Another issue is that "Shuffle" is not random. The shuffled songs are always played in the exact same order, every time they are played. ORIGINAL DECEMBER 21, 2018 REVIEW: THINGS TO KNOW: 1) The Spot has four types of controls, which often overlap in purpose and function: a) Physical buttons on the top allow you to raise and lower the sound, turn the camera on and off. b) Voice recognition: "Alexa, raise the sound," "Alexa, show me the current temperature," "Alexa, play modern blues," c) Touch screen: ---Swipe down to reveal a settings menu. Spend at least a few minutes exploring this menu and filling in important information like time zone and your location. By going through each setting, you will be able to customize many if not most of Spot's offerings. ---Touch the screen when music is playing to see title of artist, various play functions, and lyrics if available. ---Touch the screen for "snooze" when the alarm is going off. d) The Alexa app which can be downloaded to your smart phone or tablet. This is not entirely necessary for the Spot. 2) If you want the Spot to do something, tell it to do it. If the clock is not showing on the screen, say "Alexa, show the clock." If you want to know the current temperature say "Alexa, what is the current temperature." If you want it to stop rotating the dopey "Trending Topics" screen say "Alexa, stop showing the "Trending Topics" screen." 3) The quality of the screen is pretty good but not so good that you will want to watch a full length video. It's good enough for video calling, looking at album art, reading lyrics, glancing at the temperature, following a recipe. 4) The quality of the sound is pretty good. If you consider yourself an audiophile and are looking for a top quality audio system to listen to The Emperor Concerto with Artur Rubenstein, the Spot is absolutely not going to do it for you. Also, the Spot does not sound like a Bose. If you want or need fabulous sound quality, get a Bose. If you want an all purpose, small device that sounds good, the Spot's for you. REVIEW: I've been looking for a bed-side clock radio for about a year and just couldn't decide on anything. Like Goldilocks, the choices were either too big/too small/or way too last century. The minute I saw the Echo Spot, my heart did a flip! It was perfect. First of all, the Spot is darned cute...in a small, round, orb-stylish way. My bedside table has a rim around it, so I decided to purchase the Echo Spot Adjustable Stand - White which lifts the Echo up about 1 1/2" and allows the Spot to tilt forward and back. Set up is a snap. You plug it in, and Spot comes to life. The touch screen lights up and Spot talks to you. You pick your WiFi from a list, enter your WiFi password, and wait a minute or so while the software updates. While waiting you stare at the Spot and admire its adorableness. When the software is updated, you answer a few questions and before you know it, you and Spot are going steady and Spot has become the boss of you. To change settings you swipe down on the screen to see the settings menu. It is important to go into Settings and set your preferences. For now, here are six digital and six analog clock face selections for the home screen. I picked an old fashioned analog clock face with a sweep second hand and a small window for the date. You can also use a photo for the home screen. The home screen clock alternates with several other info screens. One shows the current temperature, the time, the moon phase, and name of your city/location. Another gives suggestions of things or "Skills" to ask Spot to do for you. Another, which I quickly turned off, announces trending topics. I just didn't find "Scientists find moth not seen in 10 years" something I needed to see or even know. Tune In Radio (which is free) provides all the radio stations I like to listen to. I ask Spot: "Alexa, play 1010 WINS on TuneIn" and away we go. My only complaint is that there is an obvious bias to sign one up for Amazon Music Unlimited. Some requests for songs bump up against an advertisement for this subscription streaming service. I have a Prime membership and an Amazon Music account. That should be enough for now. For now, Spot and I are in our honeymoon period and nothing is going to get me down.